February 5th (Sunday): I had day 3 of training, opening Dumbo. So I had another 6:45am - 3:15pm shift. Basically we learned that Dumbo is WAY easier (for the most part) than Barnstormer and is a pretty simple attraction to run. So this day was nice and stress-free. :)
February 6th (Monday): This was day 4 of training, closing Dumbo! We worked from 1:30pm - 10pm, and it was another easy shift. Anything late at night is super easy because no one is really riding either of our attractions at night - they're all over at Space Mountain or something like that. Especially since ours are geared toward small children, a lot of kids go to their hotels after Wishes.
February 7th (Tuesday): I got to go to Universal!! Finally! But we didn't go until 2:30pm, so I spent the morning in Hollywood Studios with my roommate Mariam, then later met up with my other roommate Alexa. Mariam and I rode the Great Movie Ride, did some shopping, and watched the Frozen show! IT WAS SERIOUSLY SO GOOD GUYS. Like, the kids love it for the sing-a-long part, and the adults love it because it's basically stand-up comedy, similar to the role of the genie at the Aladdin show in Disneyland. So it was really funny, both of us loved it. Then Alexa met up with us and we got lunch, and that's pretty much it. Wait times were horrendous when we first got there so we didn't get the chance to do Rockin' Rollercoaster or Tower of Terror. I went with my friend Melissa, who I met on my orientation days. She works Fantasyland West at Philharmagic, the Carousel, and Princess Fairytale Hall. Even though she has three attractions, she only had three days of training because they're all pretty simple!! So anyway, we went with four of her roommates, and one of their friends, and adventured through both parks. Honestly the longest line I waited in all day was the line to buy my annual pass at the ticket booth, it took like 45 minutes and was super annoying. But we rode the Mummy, Minions, Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Gringotts, King Kong...and I think that's it. Also literally every single Universal ride splashes water at you and uses 4D technology. Side note. Wait times were like 20 minutes or shorter all across the park. We also got butterbeer (duh) and I got candy from Honeydukes!!
February 8th (Wednesday): On this day off I had my first Marketing & Sales seminar!! It's a four week course that includes no homework, yay! I think it'll be interesting, but I'm most excited for the last session where we get to interact with a panel of leaders from marketing departments across property. So I have that every Wednesday (for four weeks) from 9am-11am at Chatham. After that I went to Cast Connections with Mariam and Alexa, and we bought some awesome Disney merch for super cheap! Basically the big part of the store is set up like a warehouse/retail shop where everything is organized and for sale, but no displays are set up. The whole store is on sale for Cast Members, and you can bring non-CM's in with you. So from this store I got a Star Wars shirt for like $8. There's an awesome side store that has old or damaged or returned merchandise, and everything is 75% off. ONLY Cast Members are allowed in this side room. So from there I bought a giant, 2XL BB-8 shirt to sleep in for $5. Anyhoo, we went from there to Epcot and spent the day in Epcot! We got Fastpasses for Test Track and Living with the Land, and rode those, Frozen, Figment, Soarin', and Nemo. We also got lunch at Mexico, a snack in Germany, tried the sodas at Club Cool, and checked out some shops! Brooklyn met up with us at one point in the day, then we all headed to Animal Kingdom Lodge and met Alyssa for dinner!! We made reservations for Boma because we got 40% off there, and got lost trying to find it. There are two main buildings for AKL, and we picked the wrong one at first. Whoops! Anyway, Boma is African-style food, and is a GIANT buffet. So I naturally got three plates and two bowls of food. I got some chicken, steak with sauce, spiced sweet potatoes, peanut rice (SO GOOD), bobotie (a type of casserole thing), macaroni and cheese from the kids corner, veggies, applesauce, fruit, pasta salad, grapefruit/avocado/papaya salad (I got like three helpings), salmon, plantain chips, guava panna cotta, cookies and cream mini cheesecake bites, and ZEBRA DOMES. Zebra domes are these magical desserts that everyone needs to try, we all LOVED them holy wow. Also we got bottomless fountain drinks (including Shirley Temples!). So yes, delicious delicious day.
February 9th (Thursday): Last day of training! We closed Barnstormer and worked from 3:30pm - midnight. Closing is much easier than opening, and working Barn that late is SUPER easy. It was Disney After Hours which is where like 1,500 or 2,000 guests can pay extra to have the park to themselves from 8pm - 11pm. Well. Those people aren't paying extra to ride Barnstormer late at night. So we had one family actually ride it like seven times in a row or something because we can do re-rides if there is no one else in line and they don't get out to exit. So yeah, super easy.
February 10th (Friday): Assessment day! Tamara and I had our assessment with Liz, and we both passed. Our assessment included two 100+ questions exams, multiple choice, one for each attraction. Then we went out and talked about then physically performed every part of the rotation. So that was from 11am - 7:30pm. Pretty easy, not as scary and we thought it was going to be!
February 11th (Saturday): My first shift without the "Earning My Ears" tag! I worked from 9:15am - 6:45pm and mostly worked over at Dumbo. I had to deal with two children peeing on the play area, and one child who thought she was lost. Always an adventure in there. Also spent a little bit of time at Barn doing FastPass greeter and Merge, but Barn went down for maintenance issues and so half that time was me standing outside and informing guests. Luckily, if you have a FastPass when the ride goes down, you can use that FP at any other attraction in your time window! Except Peter Pan or Mine Train. Or you can come back later in the day and your FP is still good. After work I changed and went into the park to watch Once Upon A Time and Wishes! Celebrate the Magic is so much better than Once Upon A Time, just saying...and even though I LOVE Wishes, I'm excited to see the new firework show in May! Also Rivers of Light is finally a thing, so I'm excited for that in the next couple of weeks. I got a cinnamon roll (BRICK) from Gaston's Tavern, and I much prefer the old recipe. So next time I'll just stick to Lefou's Brew :) Otherwise I just walked around until Wishes at 9pm! Then the monorail was crazy busy, and the bus wasn't set to get to the Contemporary for like 30 minutes, so I hopped on a bus to Wilderness Lodge and took the CP bus from there.
February 12th (TODAY! SUNDAY! DAY OFF!): Right now I'm sitting in bed, drinking my breakfast smoothie and waiting for laundry to be done. Then I'm going to do some quick Walmart errands, then go to DAK! Cory has his assessment today so hopefully I can run into him and cheer him on ;) I plan on basically just watching some shows, maybe single ride on Everest, walking around the animal areas, then going to Epcot for eating! Yay! Maybe I'll make a FP, who knows. Unfortunately, literally no one has Sunday or Monday off so I'm on my own! That's okay though :) I'll probably go to MK or Epcot tomorrow then I work the next eight days! Work schedule until next day off is as follows:
2/14: 8:30am - 8:45pm
2/15: 4:30pm - 10:45pm
2/16: 11am - 8:15pm
2/17: 10am - 9:15pm
2/18: 4:15pm - 12:45am
2/19: 2:45pm - 12:45am
2/20: 9am - 8:15pm
2/21: 10am - 8:30pm
2/22: OFF
2/23: OFF
2/24: 10am - 9:15pm
2/25: 3:45pm - 11:45pm
I think it's close to 48 hours next week? Anyhoo, see ya next time!
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